This blog is about fairness; about looking at objects from multiple perspectives. Stable transformation comes only slowly; and only if the environment is free of sporadic jitters of passion and anger that destabilize growth. I strongly believe that the path to peace crosses through the battle with self.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Juidiciary joins the war criminals?!

This is Judge Royce C. Lamberth.Judge Lamberth received his appointment to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in November 1987 by President Reagan. He was appointed Presiding Judge of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in May 1995 by Chief Justice Rehnquist. Judge Lamberth graduated from the University of Texas and from the University of Texas School of Law, receiving an LL.B. in 1967. He served as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General�s Corps of the United States Army from 1968 to 1974, including one year in Vietnam. Something tells me Judge Lamberth, an avid proponent of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (the court that warrants wire-tapping!) has a seriouslyRepublicain Agenda! as he has presided over a few cases against the Clintons!

Judge Lambert misconductin the Indian Trust Fund Case had him removed from the case by the Court of Appeals.Judge Lamberth has thus gone back to his particular interest in Iran: he holds Iran responsible for any act of terrorism, with or without proof!

FOX and CNN are the first to report on this!=======================================================================Iran's Response:

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran said Saturday that a US federal court decision to fine Tehran 2.65 billion dollars for the 1983 bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut was "baseless" and aimed at plundering Iranian assets.

"This decision is baseless. Unfortunately some courts in the United States, without listening to the other side's views and without investigation, issue verdicts that are not legally defendable," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

"These decision show political pressures to plunder Iran's assets in the US," he said, adding that Tehran would follow up the case through its representative at the United Nations.

"Iran Air Flight 655 (IR655) was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air that flew from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai, UAE. On Sunday July 3, 1988, towards the end of the Iran Iraq War, the aircraft flying IR655 was shot down by the U.S. Navy Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai, killing all 290 passengers and crew aboard, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children. The Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time.

According to the US government, the Iranian airbus was mistakenly identified as an attacking F14 fighter. The Iranian government, however, maintains that the Vincennes knowingly shot down a civilian aircraft.

[...]

On February 22, 1996 the United States agreed to pay Iran US$61.8 million in compensation ($300,000 per wage-earning victim, $150,000 per non-wage-earner) for the 248 Iranians killed in the shootdown, but not for the aircraft, which was estimated to be worth approximately US$30 million."

Source: Wikipedia (link above)

I noticed that the BBC dropped their bizarre rules of being "fare and balanced" in their report of this - I felt Iran could comfortably compete in a compensation argument with the US.

Re Lamberth---I've been following the Indian case for 7 years. They will never get an accounting of what the US govt owes them, no matter who the judge is. I've seen a list of treaties that have been completely ignored by the US Govt.

I have very little faith that the "justice system" works for anybody but the rich and powerful, and it's not a fair system in practice. Rarely does the little guy get anything but grief from the justice system. Lamberth is simply a part of the system that benefits the rich and powerful. Seven years worth of reading articles from my FindLaw subscription has convinced me of that. Every time the big energy companies get sued and lose, some crooked judge dimisses the case on appeal, or the amount that the company has to pay gets reduced, etc. etc.

On the Vincennes shoot down-- I've met a lot of sailors in my time, and it just might have been a mistake. That's no consolation, I know, and it is just my opinion based on my personal experiences.

I don't much care for what the CIA does all over the planet, but if they think that the Iranian govt is funding Shia groups, I belive them.

Is there competition between Shia and Sunni for hegemony. Do the Shia groups sit on top of the oil? Don't the Sunni believe that they deserve a share of the oil profits?

Somebody needs to help me here ... I never have understood why the Iranian government wouldn't help Shia groups. I can't fathom why the USA can travel halfway around the world and lodge 160,000 soldiers in a sovereign nation, then appear outraged when their next-door neighbors express interest in the outcome.If we went to ANY central American nation, we'd find outlaws using US-made weapons. Should those countries threaten attack on the USA? OF COURSE one finds weapons in a country hungry for weapons made in the country next door.And this is cause for belligerence because ...?

About Me

I am an Iranian woman. I am not an activist of any feminist cause, but my tales are those of the resilience of my country, half-filled with mothers, sisters, wives and lovers of different shades of creativity and participation. Here, I show a bit of how we resist, as men and women.